Not quite sure that counts - the people with the artificial limbs have them to walk in the first place and only because they are lacking the actual limbs themselves. Body augmentation would be replacing working limbs for the sole purpose of improved performance and functionality, which to my knowledge, has yet to happen.

yeah, im just saying that it has neared the tipping point. before now, it has been a clear disadvantage to have prosthetics instead of natural limbs. prosthetics will only get better, and voluntary "upgrades" will happen before forced ones. i would imagine that military practice would start with people that have had limbs removed due to injury. professional athletes could very well opt for voluntary amputations if it meant enough of an advantage, especially for those on the cusp of being pro. they already have issues over steroids and other performance enhancing substances, and there is a certain percentage that would do ANYTHING for the edge that puts them over the top. and there is a ton of money in athletic enhancement

As a side note, you should all be aware that the US military is the leading developer of artificial body parts, and their ultimate goal is to be able to take a crippled soldier and be able to repair him to fighting condition.

So if you truly desire artificial limbs that are better than organic ones, I would advise also being opposed to cutting the Pentagon's budget.

Oh so you came back without a leg from the war? Here let me fix that for you! Go get them soldier!

Yes, the divide between augmented and non augmented people should be interesting. But would replacing our body parts with artificial ones affect our evolution? And even if it does, we would be able to compensate for it with even more augments. We'd essentialy give each individual power over his own evolution.

Yes, regulations like that would solve a lot of problems with this issue, but we do live in a free, capitalistic society. Shouldn't you be allowed to do with your body whatever you like as long as you have the money for it? If people were prohibited from it, we'd probably get complains about our freedoms being cut, and the companies who produce these augments would fight against it aswell, since it would most likely reduce their sales a lot.

Right but this is one of those things where capitalism might just be a danger to society. I'm not saying we shouldn't be allowed to enhance ourselves at all, I'm taking no stance but playing devil's advocate, however there are serious consequences for allowing people to enhance themselves. There are serious consequences for transhumanism. I wrote a paper on it in college a while back and what I discovered was a fear that it would increase the wealth gap between the haves and the have nots, making life great for those who can enhance themselves, but even worse for those who cannot; these are the issues DE:HR highlights. The problem is that such transhumanism could possible make it harder, and harder, and perhaps even impossible for those who have-not to even enter the playing field, much less have a chance. After all, the rich would have a monopoly on faster minds, stronger muscles, sharper eyes, better ears and so on and so forth while the rest are stuck with what biological evolution gave them.

The question is, is it better for humanity to transcend our organic bodies and achieve synthesis (lolME3Ending) or will this erupt into further chaos? And is there a way to make this enhancement fair without restricting freedoms or without making the gap between rich and poor wider?

If a video game developer removed tumors from players, they'd whine about nerfing their loss in weight and access to radiation powers. -Cracked.com

I read into the whole Oscar Pistorius thing, that's definetly an issue that sports have to deal with pretty soon, even though they couldn't make up their mind if it gave him and advantage or not. Prostethics are getting more and more efficient, might not even have to wait long until they start preforming the biological ones.

Originally Posted by orissa

The question is, is it better for humanity to transcend our organic bodies and achieve synthesis (lolME3Ending) or will this erupt into further chaos? And is there a way to make this enhancement fair without restricting freedoms or without making the gap between rich and poor wider?

I doubt we can achieve that without abolishing the current monetary system. Currently what might happen is that the people who can't afford or don't want augments for whatever reason will become poor and rely on a welfare system that is being supported by even less tax payers than before. While this won't be a fast process, it will lead to disaster in the long run.
And this is what we've been striving for, is it not? To be the masters of our own evolution, to not be limited by nature but only ourselves.
Do you want to breathe underwater? Here, let's implant some artificial gills into you so you can stay underwater indefinitely. You want to see underwater? Let's just tweak your eyes a bit and you'll be good to go.

I read into the whole Oscar Pistorius thing, that's definetly an issue that sports have to deal with pretty soon, even though they couldn't make up their mind if it gave him and advantage or not. Prostethics are getting more and more efficient, might not even have to wait long until they start preforming the biological ones.

yeah, it was never really settled whether those legs were an advantage or not. performance during the olympics would suggest that the runner is still greater than the legs, if they were an advantage. but we are clearly on the brink of where it WILL become an advantage

Oh so you came back without a leg from the war? Here let me fix that for you! Go get them soldier!

/sadface

Well if it makes you feel better, soldiers are currently given prosthetic limbs and then asked if they want to be redeployed, not the other way around.

And apparently a lot of them are taking the offer, which is strange to me. I'm not an infantryman so I don't really understand it, but I feel like if I had my arm or leg blown off, I'd be traumatized enough that I'd never want to go in to combat again.

...or maybe I'd be so eager for revenge, that I'd want to go back right away... hrmmm...

Well if it makes you feel better, soldiers are currently given prosthetic limbs and then asked if they want to be redeployed, not the other way around.

And apparently a lot of them are taking the offer, which is strange to me. I'm not an infantryman so I don't really understand it, but I feel like if I had my arm or leg blown off, I'd be traumatized enough that I'd never want to go in to combat again.

...or maybe I'd be so eager for revenge, that I'd want to go back right away... hrmmm...

Even if you wanted/could go back to the fight, how the hell would you perform as well as before with a prosthetic/plastic limb?! I would, in no way, risk my comrades' lifes, or mine, because of that.

Really? So they are actually good or even better replacement for our natural limbs?

I had no idea such thing exist.

Oh yeah, check this outhttp://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_n...turn-to-combat
I personally would miss my legs, but if I lost one I'd take one of these in a heartbeat. Imagine having two of them! As long as you kept a supply of the batteries on hand, you could run forever. And they only take a second to swap out.

Oh yeah, check this outhttp://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_n...turn-to-combat
I personally would miss my legs, but if I lost one I'd take one of these in a heartbeat. Imagine having two of them! As long as you kept a supply of the batteries on hand, you could run forever. And they only take a second to swap out.

Looks amazing, I really didn't know we had this.

I do wonder though, how a human being would look like or be if he/she was filled with these kind of technology.

Did quite a bit of research into this last year, and, well, we are WAY not there yet. We are kinda moving in that direction slowly - some athletes actually opt to replace healthy hips with implants preemptively.

There are a few issues with implants. They often cause stress concentration, which weakens the bone. They can't regenerate like bone does and are susceptible to fatigue. And most materials, excluding ceramics, shed bits due to stress and the bits accumulate and can cause issues. Ceramics are really good in terms of being neutral, but they have shitty tensile and sheer characteristics.

i'm alright to this so long as they keep them away from wireless interaction, I would hate to start reading articles about folks limbs/organs getting hacked.

But then you wouldn't be able to surf the net with your bionic eye while on the public transport. :<
But yea, hacking would be a huge issue, hopefully they'll try to moderate their user tracking and selling that info to advertisers in light of that.

But then you wouldn't be able to surf the net with your bionic eye while on the public transport. :<
But yea, hacking would be a huge issue, hopefully they'll try to moderate their user tracking and selling that info to advertisers in light of that.

Contacts or glasses (like google glass) would be your friends then =p if I can't function with out it, it shouldn't be on the web.

that goes double for anything directly connected to your brain, you can't format/re install the OS

Proud member of the zero infraction club (lets see how long this can last =)

Imagine if pain worked like an alert system instead though. You get a quick buzz, and the warning light on your arm just stays on until you get it repaired. Much nicer than being in pain until your body can fix itself.

What's better at convincing you to do something (in this case, something rather important), pain or a blinking light? Pain is very useful the way it is.